Ginobili’s latest prolonged absence comes at a bad time for the Spurs’ bench, which was scuffling even with the former Sixth Man of the Year around to trigger the second-unit offense.

Wednesday night’s game against Orlando will be the 48th Ginobili has missed over the past two seasons. If nothing else, the Spurs’ reserves have a blueprint for playing without him.

“They have to depend on team ball,” said coach Gregg Popovich, whose club is 10-5 without Ginobili this season. “There are no superstars left coming off the bench. They’ve got to play really good offensive basketball in the sense of sharing it.”

At a time when the teams with title hopes would prefer to be surging toward the playoffs, the Spurs are limping toward the finish line.